Friday, June 12, 2009

Toto we're not in Kansas anymore...

Arrived in Dubai this evening after a great flight on Emirates Airlines. I never want to fly another airline again, or fly coach.

We were surprised with an upgrade when we got to the airport and pampered for the entire 16 hour flight. My favorite part was seeing the wide expanses of floating ice that we were flying over about mid-way through the flight from a camera they have mounted under the plan. Oh and the champagne they give you as soon as you sit down, oh and the 1000 channels on your personal tv, and the fully reclining sit. That's all. Once we arrived the airport was pretty empty, not many flights coming in at that time, we walked right through customs and outside to the 99 degree heat at 9pm. Reminded me of summers in the san joaquin valley.

It was about a half hour cab ride to our corporate residences, and on the way here we spotted a TGI Fridays, at least 3 starbucks, and all of the other american fast food places. Authenticity is not an easy thing to come by these days. At night Dubai just looked like most other big cities, lots of concrete, big freeways and buildings. along side the freeway is the metro rail that will be opening later this year.

We did pass by the burjdubai the tallest building in the world on our way from the airport. Yup, that's a dang big building. We'll be getting a private tour on Sunday. (their workweek here is Sunday to Thursday).

Tomorrow is a day of rest, we're thinking of going to on the Big Bus tour, apparently this city isn't really walkable and the tour is highly recommended. Apparently the shopping is great here, so we'll probably give that a try, it can't hurt to look right?

Best get off to bed, even though it's only 11am back home, I'm going to attempt to sleep to get on their schedule.